Medeski, Martin & Wood

Jazz fans and musicians never paid much heed to the Grateful Dead, put off by
the rock group's musical sloppiness and psychedelic lyrics, but Deadheads
have had the last laugh with the ascendancy of Medeski Martin & Wood, who
have ridden a Dead-influenced touring, recording and
marketing esthetic to stardom in just 10 years.

The New York City-based trio of keyboardist John Medeski, drummer Billy
Martin and bassist Chris Wood, which performs Tuesday in Southam Hall of the
National Arts Centre, is unarguably part of the lineage that includes Duke
Ellington, Sun Ra and the Art Ensemble of Chicago. But MM&W also has much in
common with turntablists, sound "assemblers" like Bill Laswell and jam bands
like Phish. With its interactive Web site, logo-bearing toques and liberal
audience-taping policy, MM&W seems every inch the contemporary
band-cum-marketing machine. That they can both improvise at an extremely high
level and groove an audience into a trance is more than mere icing on the
cake. Make no mistake: MM&W didn't make it to the top of the Down Beat
critics' poll or into soft-seat concert halls like the NAC by aggressive
brand management alone.

The band's eight recordings reveal exceptionally broad range -- from nods to
jazz masters like John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk on 1993's It's A
Jungle In Here to funky groove sessions with DJ Logic on 1998's
Combustication. Not only is this group able to leap deftly from an
all-acoustic live session like Tonic to a dense, electronic
avant-garde extravaganza like The Dropper in less than a year; from
minute to minute MM&W can shift from quasi-African rhythms to clanging techno
beats. For those with an attention span developed prior to the advent of
music videos, it might seem to verge on pastiche, but MM&W's artistry lies in
making it work.

Individually, the members of MM&W come by musical diversification naturally.
Each followed varied paths to get to their meeting at New York's Village Gate
nightclub in 1991. John Medeski, the 35-year-old erstwhile leader of the
group, spent his pre-school years in Kentucky before his parents moved to
Chicago and then settled in Fort Lauderdale. Always precocious -- he could
read before he could talk -- Medeski never fit in well at public school, but
was gifted enough as a pianist to land at the New England Conservatory.
Although still on track to become a classical performer, Medeski began to
improvise more and more, and steered himself toward study with acknowledged
jazz leaders like Bob Moses and Ran Blake. Like many musicians who attended
college in Boston, he also put in time learning the art of making music with
the Either/Orchestra big band before moving to New York.

Billy Martin -- the oldest member of the group at 36 -- is a lifelong New
Yorker whose father is a classical violinist. Although he attended a prep
school operated by the Manhattan School of Music, Martin eschewed a formal
education to play as much as possible. It would be difficult to find a
broader range of employers than mellow-jazz trumpeter Chuck Mangione and
angry young artist John Zorn, but Martin worked for both. Coincidentally, Bob
Moses -- Medeski's onetime teacher -- became a mentor.

Chris Wood grew up a continent away, in Pasadena, California, and Boulder,
Colorado. His university professor father was an amateur guitarist, and music
always filled their home. By high school, the young Wood was playing in rock
bands and hooking up with an entertainment-booking agency to work at weddings
and other social events. Like Medeski, Wood chose the New England
Conservatory -- primarily for the presence of bassist Dave Holland -- but
school agreed with him even less than it did his future bandmate. He dropped
out after one semester, stuck around Boston for another year to advantage of
private lessons with Holland, Moses and others, then headed to New York.

Although Medeski and Wood had played together once in Boston, it wasn't until
both were in Manhattan that a real connection was made, and then only when
Martin came on the scene. The trio wound up as a house rhythm section at the
Village Gate, one of the oldest clubs in Greenwich Village, and sparks flew.
Before they had even officially become a band they recorded their first CD,
the independently released Notes From The Underground.

Briefly named Coltrane's Wig, MM&W solidified around rehearsals at the Martin
family residence in suburban New Jersey and signed with Grammavision Records
to record It's A Jungle In Here. At the same time, the band started
venturing out from New York, hitting the road for brief jaunts in an RV. Band
legend has it that MM&W's organ- and synth-heavy sound was dictated by the
fact that Medeski couldn't take a piano on the road. Whatever the case, the
band's core sound -- influenced by funky organ masters Jimmy Smith, Larry
Young and Lonnie Smith -- struck a chord with listeners and its fan base
began to expand.

By 1994, having recorded "Friday Afternoon In The Universe", the band members
found themselves home so seldom that they gave up their New York apartments
and became full-time denizens of the road. They toured for almost two years
without a real break. The tactic made the band's reputation, as did the
ever-changing music and the Deadhead philosophy of encouraging fans to record
concerts and trade the results on the Internet.

Five years ago, MM&W decided a change was needed. They left the road for a
secluded house in Hawaii, recorded a breakthrough CD called Shack-man,
cashed in their chips with Grammavision and put roots down again in
Manhattan. Their eight-week, Monday night residency at the Knitting Factory
drew numerous guest artists, garnered widespread media attention and ignited
the kind of record label bidding war that is almost unheard of in jazz
circles.

Seventeen labels joined the fray, with Blue Note emerging on top. With the
marketing clout of an international company and respected jazz brandname
behind them, MM&W was able to throttle back on its touring schedule and
concentrate on expanding its musical horizons. Their Blue Note debut --
Combustication -- saw them add DJ Logic on turntables for three songs
and venture into spoken-word, as well, with Steve Cannon's tribute to Kansas
City's contributions to jazz. Combustication was also released in
remix format, the result of handing the mixing board over to people like Bill
Laswell, Guru, Automator and Yuka Honda.

For a band as popular a concert draw as MM&W a live recording seemed an
obvious move. Leave it these contrarians to base it around a run of
all-acoustic performances and then follow it up quickly with their densest
studio recording to date. In addition to exploring a broader range of
instrumentation themselves, The Dropper also introduced a new cast of
guest players into the MM&W orbit, including former Sun Ra sideman Marshall
Allen on alto saxophone, percussionist Eddie Bobe and violinist Charlie
Burnham.

The Dropper also marked the introduction of Shacklyn, the band's
Brooklyn studio, one of several indications that MM&W have arrived. Another
sign of the band's newfound success is the emergence of side projects, such
as Martin's specialty label, Amulet Records, and Medeski's band The Word,
which features the North Mississippi All-Stars and steel guitar wizard Robert
Randolph. Rather than signs of rampant ego, the extra-musical trappings like
the logo, the line of apparel, custom label and the like are just another
sign that MM&W has excelled in learning the lessons of the Dead. Fans might
well hope that the trio adopts one other Dead hallmark: longevity.